This blog will post detailed news items about GLBT issues. Some of the issues include the "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and gay marriage. Please note that my main website is DOASKDOTELL.COM (link on my Profile).

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About Me

Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Gay clubs in Baltimore (as with all clubs and discos) would
be affected by the 10 PM curfew related to the recent rioting over the Freddie
Gray incident.

I dropped by the Grand Central on Charles Street late this
afternoon. The street itself was very
quiet when I was there today. The businesses had closed Monday before 7
PM. I was told that this establishment
would try to do a tea dance early, starting around 5 PM, at least on Saturday,
if the curfew is still in effect. It
would sound logical for the Hippo to do the same, although I don’t see that
online yet.

Usually, disco crowds come late, except on Halloween and
then on Saturday night after Pride. I
wish they came earlier and that there were more Sunday tea dances anyway.

Pictures on this post are from the Sandtown area of
Baltimore, my earlier visit today.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the two Obergefell
cases today. At 10 AM, it heard 90
minutes on the question as to whether states can limit marriage to one man, one
woman. The last hour (until 12:30) dealt
with Full Faith and Credit, whether states that don’t recognize gay marriage
would have to recognize the gay marriages in states that do, which is
meaningful only if “we” “lose” the first case.

CNN has a detailed account here, with four videos, and HRC
has audio here.

Generally, Kennedy seemed skeptical that the Court should
take over “redefining” marriage, but he also acknowledged that children raised
by same-sex couples can experience hardships imposed by negative social views
about their parents. He also acknowledged that gay couples seem to be needed as adoptive parents.

I got there around noon, and found that the “anti-gay” crowd
was quite vocal, often trying to out-shout the Equality forces. Fundamentalist religious rhetoric was common.
One opponent was an Orthodox Jewish group.
One demonstrator had a placard claiming that one in three gay men have
sex with minors.

One anti-gay protester was reportedly arrested in the Supreme Court building.

I carried around a book on quantum physics to visibly meet “religionists”. I met someone from the Libertarian Party of
Virginia in the crowd.

One of the conservative speakers toward the end claimed that
gays and lesbians can tell their stories in movies when African Americans often
can’t, and said that blacks have been lynched when gays haven’t. (That’s not
totally true; there have been a few
plots against gay establishments, and a horrible incident in New Orleans in
1973.)

I walked toward the back, and then Union Station. I asked one woman how it went, and she gave a
“thumbs up” sign, and then two more women, who were also quite optimistic.

Also, the Foundry Methodist Church at 16th and P Sts NW, where the Clintons used to attend, was "tp-ed" with anti-gay signs (story and picture in Washingtom Blade April 26 by Michael Lavers here. But today, the sign had been removed.

But most of the article concerns whether “fundamental rights”
as in the constitution should only be those recognized by the founding fathers –
something that immediately asks about the incorporation doctrine associated
with the 14th Amendment. The
other side is that societal culture can come to a modern understanding that
other individual rights are fundamental.
Part of that culture certainly relates to technology and to standard of
living. Tuesday, April 28, is the "big day" at SCOTUS.

Friday, April 24, 2015

Vox media published a 9-point primer today on the
transgender experience, and covered the terms “gender non-conforming” and “gender
queer”, a piece by German Lopez, here ("Nine questions about gender identity and
being transgendered you were too embarrassed to ask”). In my Army days, we called these "hangups." Please, no more of "all that body-shaving".

The most critical point is the “Symphony #8” (G Major if it’s
Dvorak), “why does society who don’t follow gender norms such a hard time?” While Lopez talks about the idea of
perceiving “deception” (almost as if from a polygraph). My own experience, in the 50s and 60s
(especially with William and Mary, NIH, and the Army) was more that gender
non-conformity (the closest model to describe me) could result in others taking
up the slack of the risks that we all had to share. In the collective, society seemed to depend
on faithfulness to gender roles. I was criticized for over-dependence and "getting out of things", even potential physical cowardice. Of course, this can happen with gender conformity, and I seemed to embrace the view, ironically, that masculinity in men was a virtue to be earned. And we've had at least one Navy Seal who later turned out to be transgender (Kristin Beck).

Right now, on Meredith Vieira, the panel is talking about “dressing
gay” (as not really necessary).

Thursday, April 23, 2015

The Daily Tar Heel, in article by Katia Martinez, reports on
a mild protest at the University of North Carolina (UNC) campus over the policy
barring MSM from donating blood, link here.

Apparently that policy is still in force,
despite an announcement by FDA in December 2014 to life the ban for MSM
abstinent for at least a year and still HIV- by all tests. Vox Media had panned the idea, that the new policy
worked only for gay men who don’t have sex (often elderly).

Another article, by Madison Flager, in the same UNC paper, talks
about LGBT college students, and reports a bizarre finding from a UNC survey “only
51.4%” identified themselves as heterosexual, link here. If that were really true, population
demographics really is in trouble.

Saturday, April 18, 2015

A long day trip this week brought back memories of the “Don’
Ask, Don’t Tell” battle of 17 years.

I happened to pass by the Carlisle Barracks and Army War
College in PA. I think there was a case
with a female officer attending there about twelve years ago. Again, it’s hard to see much from the road.

So much of my moral thinking in those days hinged on the
idea that people have to be prepared to respond to adversity as imposed by
others. In my case, it was the whole
issue of fitness for the Vietnam era military draft, and the idea I had to prove
I would not be a (physical) coward, when sometimes I was. Much of the narrative in the first DADT book
concerned the concern over security clearances and eligibility for military
service after my William and Mary expulsion. It also concerned the use of the
deferment system. And here I am, a half
century later.

I got off at the “wrong” Metro exit, the Howard University
stop on the Green Line, on the way to Town last night.

But it’s about as close as the U Street exit, and the walk
gives a view of the Howard Theater.

The patio is open.

Update later today:

A lemonade stand, across 23rd ST S in Arlington VA (near Pentagon City) from Freddie's Beach Bar (and the AGLA brunch today). benefit for an abused animal shelter, a mother and son running it. Remember, Donald Trump had started out "The Apprentice" in 2004 with selling lemonade (before, a few episodes later, Troy McClain got his legs waxes as he "took one for the team").

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

The Washington Blade (Michael Lavers) is reporting that Republican governor
of Florida, Rick Scott, has declined to say whether he will sign the bill
repealing Florida’s legislated ban on gays and lesbians adopting children,
story here.

But the state has not enforced the ban since 2010, when a
state appeals court struck it down.

Equality Florida has a drive to urge signing the law, here saying that the horrible history started by
Anita Bryant is over.

Rosie O’Donnell, as I recall, had moved away from the state
for this reason.

Equality Florida is warning about HB 7111, another bill which would allow private adoption agencies to continue discrimination in various ways, even if getting state funds.

When I was working on my book centering on the military ban,
back in the 1990s, I started encountering more interest in the parenting and
adoption issues even then. In the mid
1990s, Kenneth Morgen’s book “Getting Simon: Two Gay Doctors’ Journey into
Fatherhood”, taking place in Maryland, was an important book.

Monday, April 13, 2015

The country’s top law firms don’t want to defend older
DOMA-type laws, according to a front page story today in the New York Times by
Adam Liptak, link here.

Liptak has also previously reported
that the Supreme Court has been urged to “look abroad” for guidance on same-sex
marriage.

Smaller law firms will still take up the socially
conservative arguments (that sound surprisingly collectivist as well as “religulous”
and often contradictory to other ideas in conservative philosophy). But bigger law firms normally work with
larger corporations that feel that society has turned to corner on gay equality
and that need to embrace the concept to grow their markets as well as attract
talent.

Some firms say there is still a difference between talking about good policy and maintaining that the Constitution would compel it.

In another direction, the Huffington Post reports that Marco Rubio will appear before an anti-gay group, the Florida Family Policy Council, story here. And the article has a slide-show, "Anti-Gay Protesters Getting Owned."

In other words, corporate America has largely followed the
thinking of libertarian interests:
anti-gay bias will hurt business, even in Bible belt states. Companies follow the thinking of the Cato
Institute, and Gays and Lesbians for Individual Liberty, GLIL, not very active
today but influential in the 1990s. They
follow the reasoning of Richard Sincere, David Boaz, and me.

Snow has an article about Rand Paul’s neglect to mention
LGBT concerns, as does the Washington Blade this weekend. But on CNN, Paul told interviewers he is a “leave
me alone kind of guy” and that he thinks gay couple should get the same
benefits as straight couples, but that this is still up to the states, and that
“marriage” for him is still more a religious than legal word. Well, don’t say that in a community property
state, like Texas.

Monday, April 06, 2015

Recently (in February) the MLB Network aired a special about
the career of Billy Bean, the first openly gay player in Major League Baseball,
who came out in 1999. USA Today has a story with clips from the special here. He played, as a left-handed hitting
outfielder, for the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres. The USA clip shows his first major league home
run.

Billy Bean was hired by MLB as Ambassador for Inclusion in
July 2014, was reported in Outsports here .

Bean is the author of “Going the Other Way: Lessons from a
Life in Major League Baseball”.

Bean should not be confuses with Billy Beane, Oakland A’s
owner, who is sometimes viewed as the subject of the movie “Moneyball”.

Today, of course, is Opening Day for many teams, It is common for teams to have LGBT fan days.

The Washington Post reports Monday, in a story by Marc
Fisher, that baseball is losing fans to other sports, especially soccer, link here

I grew up “suffering” with the Washington Senators who
played in old Griffith Stadium, now the site of Howard University Hospital, and
not far from the Town DC and 930 clubs. As
kids, we played backyard softball and wiffleball and made cardboard stadium
boardgames, especially in summers in Ohio.
I got to know the Cleveland Indians and the old Municipal Stadium on
Lake Erie pretty well

Saturday, April 04, 2015

While demonstrations in Indianapolis (Final Four) continue (as if the
governor’s changes aren’t good enough), the New York Times publishes “Interview
with a Christian”, by Ross Douthart – the Christian himself, being interviewed
by an imaginary interviewer, here.

Is this about “identity”, or is about cultural motives. I found myself wondering, what if during the
Vietnam War, with all the protests, a business didn’t want to serve
soldiers.

It also strikes me that the religious teachings, at their
best, are all about karma, about spreading unavoidable hidden sacrifices around
“fairly”. I still don’t find a
contradiction between the most modern cosmology, and religious faith, if you
know the right place for faith.

Sunrise is six hours away.

Update:

Easter Sunday has come. I attended Sunrise service, and a formal service at some rather open congregations. I also got an email from "Americans for ex gays" with a lot of spammy forwards inside.

So I go back to Douthart's essay, and ask, well, sure, maybe if you're a printer, you shouldn't have to print a Nazi tract if you don't want to. If you run a public accommodation, it should be open to everyone. But if the objection is a religious objection to gay relationships, what do "you" really object to. Do you really think a loving god will punish you for serving a same-sex couple? Of course, some religions don't see their "god" as loving.

I see God as cosmological, embedded in the extra dimensions of string theory, dimensions we normally can''t access. Except for something like a miracle or a resurrection. A teen Clark Kent has to get his "powers" from something.

Thursday, April 02, 2015

Michelle Singletary tweeted a rather brazen op-ed by W.
Bradford Wilcox from the Washington Post, “Don’t be a bachelor; why married men
work harder, smarter, and make more money, by W. Bradford Wilcox, for the National
Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, link here.

Of course, the obvious question for me is, would this piece
be anti-gay? Or does it apply the same
way to gay men?

I think this is just as important to ponder as the recent
debate over the RFRA in Indiana and Arkansas.

Until the past ten years, when gay marriage became culturally
and legally credible (starting with Massachusetts, then amazingly quickly),
bachelorhood and male homosexuality were seen as somewhat interchangeable. The arguments in this piece go back to books
by George Gilder, like “Sexual Suicide” (1973) and “Men and Marriage” (1986)
(see Books, April 12, 2006).

Homosexuality was regarded as a character defect or failure, an
unwillingness or disinclination to channel sexual interests and particularly
physical performance in ways needed by “society”. That was certainly true of me, and still is. Gilder made “upward affiliation” a bad
word.

It is true that in general married men make more money and
even live longer. It’s pretty obvious
you’ll compete harder (like in sales) if you have more mouths to feed. And it’s pretty clear that if you have a life
partner, you have more support in case of hardship. That’s not just disease (like recovering from
disfiguring cancer surgery). It’s intimate support if one is maimed in war or
by violence from others. I personally
find contemplating using sexuality that way repelling, but it was exactly that
attitude of mine (like when I was a patient at NIH in 1962) that others found
so disturbing.

The comment that employers prefer married men with children
hurts. It was truer when I started working
(in 1970) than it is now (for example, this anecdote on Wordpress, link ).

There’s also a real question, as to whether people should
wait until they are financially set before having (or adopting) children,
something libertarians argue. But Wilcox
turns that into a chicken-and-egg problem.

The recent course of the soap “Days of our Lives” have
carried Will’s jealous behavior with the matter of Paul and Sonny to ridiculous
extremes. But maybe jealousy is a
necessary thing. It is something I have
never experienced. Had gay marriage been possible when I was coming of age, could I really have "used it", as Jonathan Rauch would have asked?

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